Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

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Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

• Jenny Gurwell
• MGMT 610
• March 5, 2003

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Agenda

• Overview
• Employers
• Triggers
• Thresholds
• Who Must Receive Notice
• Content of Notice
• Penalties
• Exemptions and Exceptions
• Pros and Cons
• WARN Notices
• Examples
• Recommendations

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WARN Overview

• Enacted on August 4, 1988
• Became effective February 4, 1989
• Provides protection to employees, their families,
  and communities
• Requires employers to give affected employees
  written notice at least 60 days in advance of any
  plant closing or mass layoff

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Overview, cont.

• Advanced notice provides transition time
• Loss of employment
• Alternative jobs
• retraining

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Employers

• Industrial and nonindustrial employers
• Private, for-profit employers
• Private, nonprofit employers
• Public and quasi-public entities
• Exemptions
• Federal, State, and local government entities
  which provide public services

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Triggers for Notice

• Plant Closing
• Mass Layoff
• Employment Loss

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Thresholds

• Employers must have 100 or more employees
• The closure will result in an employment loss for
  50 or more employees
• Mass layoff will result in an employment loss at
  the facility for 500 or more employees
• Caution 90 day look back/look forward

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Who Must Receive Notice

• Representative(s) of affected employees
• State Dislocated Worker Unit
• Chief elected official of the unit of local
  government in the area the site is located
• Employees
• Hourly and salaried workers
• Managerial and supervisory employees
• Exception Business partners

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Content of Notice

• Name and address of employment site
• Name and telephone number of company official
• Statement permanent or temporary
• Expected date of separation
• Job titles of affected positions
• Number of affected employees
• Bumping rights
• Name and address of CEO of each union

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Penalties

• Up to 60 days back pay and benefits
• Fine - 500.00 per day
• Enforcement US district courts

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Exemptions

• Plant closing or layoff at a temporary facility
• Closing or layoff constitutes a strike and/or
  lockout
• Closing or layoff result of the completion of a
  particular project

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Exceptions

• Faltering company
• Unforeseeable business circumstances
• Natural disasters

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Pros and Cons

• Pros
• Protects the employee, their families, and the
  communities
• Cons
• Complex, confusing, and fact-specific

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WARN Notices
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Examples

• Charter Behavioral Health Systems
• Michigan Industrial Holdings, Inc.

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Recommendations

• Consider each worker displacing event in 2
  separate steps
• Qualifying
• Notifying